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LETTER FROJl HORACE BINNEY. 



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rillLADELPIIIA, ^7wi£^£ 

To the G-eneral Committee of Invitation and Correspondence 
of the Union League of Philadelphia, James Millikex, 
Esq., Chairman. 

Gentlemen: I acknowledge tlic liouor of your invitation 
to participate, as a guest, in the ceremonies and banquet 
of a national celebration of our National Independence 
in this city, on the fourth of July next; and although my 
health and strength do not permit mo to avail myself of 
the invitation, they do not confine me, at present, to this 
formal reply. ' 

I have unbounded confidence in the principles of the 
Union League of Philadelphia, and of the loyal National 
Leagues throughout the United States. They are dis- 
tinctly recommended and enforced in the Farewell Address 
of Washington, and are the breath of life to the L^nion. 
It has never been so necessary to embody them for uni- 
versal action as at this day, and to recall them partly in 
the letter and wholly in the spirit of that immortal paper. 

The maintenance of the Union against all enemies, 
without or within — a cordial, habitual and immovable 






2 LETTER FROM HORACE BINNEY. ^ <3^ STw 

attaehniont to it — a sacred regard for the Constitution, as 
the voice of the Union for its governnicnt — confidence in, 
and support of the government ordained by the Constitu- 
tion — obedience to the Lawfully elected and appointed 
administration of the governnicnt, respect to its authority, 
compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures — 
and withal, that concert of the heart with the demands of 
political and civil duty which obtains the name of loyalty, 
and in times like the present manifests the cordiality of 
allegiance to the nation — these, I think, are in part the 
very letter, and in the whole the spirit, of Washington's 
Farewell Address. Washington makes no distinction be- 
tween the lawfully elected and appointed administration 
of government and the government itself. He speaks of 
both in the same paragraph as the government. By the 
measures of government he means the measures of admi- 
nistration. The administration is the government m 
action. Wlien the people constitutionally change the 
actors in administration the government is not changed, 
and the action of the government is entitled to the same 
regard, respect and support. If tliere be any practical 
distinction between the government and tlio administra- 
tion, party has made it, and not Washington ; and it is a 
distinction disloyal to the Union, the Constitution, and 
the Government. It reduces loyalty to the degraded rank 
of personal favor to pereonal actors in the government, 
and to party satisfaction with party measures of govern- 
ment. 

The doctrines cf Washington were not party doctrines. 
Washington belonged to no party, wrote for no party, and 
acted for no party. lie feared the evils of party more 



LKTTEIl I'HOM IIOilACK DINNEV. '5 

than all other evils which could assail tlic Union. IIo ha^ 
descril)C(l, and ulinost denounced, the dcsii^ns of ii party 
disloyal to the Union, and w hieh he tliouglit was in siglit 
in hi:', own day. This was the parent tliought of his Fare- 
well Address. lie discommended jiartics altog«'lhcr, and 
at all times, as intrinsically dani::erous to the T^nion and to 
republican government. 

Let us be thankt'iil that (Jod spared the eyes of this pure 
and incorruptible i)atriot from ])eholding, and jierliaps liis 
spirit from conceiving, the terri])le depth to wliieh this 
nation would fall when an immense and iniling mass of its 
people would regard party as a political virtue, and the 
passionate exaggerations of party as the oidy efficient 
instrument of government. lie was esi)ccially blessed in 
escaping the sight of flagrant and wide-spreading rebel- 
lion, raised up by and through the spirit of party, to blast 
the best fruits of the great labor of his life, to destroy the 
Union, to falsify the Declaration of Independence, and to 
lay foundations in government which all our fathers ab- 
horred. That sight has l)een reserved for us, perhaps for 
our unfilial disregard of his advice, which seems to have 
been an inspiration from Heaven. "We have seen, and we 
now see, this awful treason, after deluging the country 
with blood, marching to invade this State, and obtaining, 
or seeking to obtain, from the same exaggerations of party, 
either open or secret assistance within the State and city 
in which the Declaration of Independence was first ushered 
to the world, and where the formation of the Union was 
first celebrated by an anniversary procession and ceremo- 
nies of homage, in the same way in which you now pur- 
pose again to celebrate it. 



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4 LETTER FROM HORACE BINNEY. 012 028 991 3^ 

As a Icarcue of patriots, rejecting all discriminations of 
party, and building- up tlie strongest and purest combina- 
tion of the peopk- in irrejiressible support of the Union 
and of the government of the nation, upon the principles 
of the Father of his country, I venerate the Union Leagues 
of the United States, and I dev.outly pray God to consum- 
mate their noble design, to the effectual suppression of 
rebellion and treason, and of treasonable practices and 
confederacies, to the perpetuity of the Union, the mainte- 
nance of the Constitution, and the restoration of peace 
and unity to our entire nation of people and States. 

I remain, gentlemen, most respectfully, your obedient 

servant, 

Horace Binney. 



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